Friday, March 21, 2014

If you are anything like me your bookmarks bar in chrome can fill up very fast. But then, at a Google conference, one of the presenters showed how to make your bookmarks ICONS instead of an "icon and name." This works great for bookmarks that have their own distinct icon like Gmail, Drive and PowerTeacher.

Here is the short version: Right click a bookmark, choose "edit" and delete the name. Click "save" and you are done. For bookmarks that have the same icon attach a letter in the name for the bookmark. For example, for PowerTeacher I have the icon and the letter "T" for my bookmark and for PowerSchool I have the icon and the letter "S." Great way to save space and to have access to many more bookmarks than I had before.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Here is real easy way to take a screenshot on a Chromebook without having to install an extension.

Press "ctrl + shift + Switch to Next Window Key." This will pull up a set of crosshairs that you can use to select a region of the screen for your screenshot. The screenshot is then temporarily saved into your "Downloads" folder. Just remember that if you log off or shut down the Chromebook all of your downloads are deleted.

When I have my students take notes I also put them (as a pdf) in a Google Drive folder that is shared with them. That way they have access to the notes even if they are absent. I created a folder in Google Drive that I shared with the class. That way when I put notes in that folder the students automatically have access to them (via my classroom website or from "Shared with Me" in their Google Drive account.